One School One Book: Biography of Albert Einstein

For several years, Horace Mann has joined other Lakewood elementaries - and other schools across our nation - in an activity called One School One Book (OSOB).  The core of the activity is that every student in the school has the opportunity to read the same book at the same time.  The goal is to get everyone reading, talking about what they've read...and to have some fun, too!

This year, for the first time, we selected a non-fiction book:  National Geographic's biography of Albert Einstein.  For 9 days K-5 students read a chapter at home (with help from siblings, parents, etc., since the book is at roughly a 3rd grade level) and answer a comprehension question on a ticket provided.  Each day, a grade level prize winner was drawn and announced as an extra motivator to keep reading.

Our 2019 OSOB culminated last week with three special treats.  On Mon-Tue-Wed, kids brought in books for our first-ever Book Swap.  Additionally, based on books donated from the Savers in Rocky River, every student was able to take home a new book in addition to the kids who brought in books to swap.  On Thursday, students created their own mini-Einsteins using toilet paper tubes - too cute!  Finally, on Friday, we had a little assembly where we re-capped all the great reading we did over 2 weeks, judged our Einstein look-a-likes and chose big prize winners for each grade level based on participation.  Congratulations to look-a-like winner Noah Sloan (1st Grade) and reading comprehension winners Evelyn Lucko, Noah Sloan, Allen Norton, Jack Burens, Ken Baus and Justin Lewis.

This wonderful experience couldn't have happened without the tremendous effort by our Title I staff Mrs. Heather Philips and Mr. Max Plevyak.  Furthermore, our PTA (especially Mrs. Beth Bratko and Mrs. Amy Lardi) provided essential support, as they so often do!  We really loved the science-themed prizes for our winners to go along with the Einstein theme.

So, we are heading into into summer reading with plenty of energy (did I mention Lakewood Public Library also visited last week to share their summer reading activities?!) We absolutely plan to do OSOB again next spring... I wonder what book it will be?  📚🙂💗